The Cottage on Juniper Ridge

“Yes, once you’ve remembered how to respect the people you’re with.”

Anyone seeing the expression on Jordan’s face would have assumed she’d gotten horrible news that the Grinch had kidnapped Justin Bieber. “Mom!”

“Sorry, sweetie,” Toni said sternly, “we’re here to be with our family.”

Jordan hurled herself into her chair and glared at her plate, and Toni returned to her seat at the table, her holiday spirit as good as smothered. Christmas was supposed to about togetherness. Even if children got sucked into their phones and their games during the rest of the year, this one day should be a time of interacting face-to-face with the people in their lives.

And, of course, her daughter would so want to interact with her now. Her mother, who was seated next to her at the end of the table, gave her arm a pat. Naturally Mom had seen. Heck, all sixteen people squeezed around the long table (plus the little ones at the kids’ table) had seen that lovely mother-daughter moment.

Jen shot her a sympathetic look from across the table.

“This, too, shall pass,” Mom whispered, and handed her the basket of French bread slices.

Jordan made a concentrated effort to enjoy her misery for the rest of the evening. She pouted through dinner and, later, refused to sit with Santa.

“That’s okay, little girl. I know your mama told you never to talk to strangers,” joked Santa, aka Uncle David.

“You’re strange, all right,” cracked Uncle Dennis.

Their comic interchange lightened the moment, and the party went on without Jordan, everyone playing Dirty Santa, a game that involved stealing presents back and forth, and singing Christmas carols while she sat in a corner like a miniature Scrooge in drag.

“What’s wrong with Jordan?” Wayne asked as the family indulged in a raucous debate over whether or not angels could actually sing, as the old Christmas carol suggested.

“She’s mad,” Toni replied.

“I can see that. Why?”

“You didn’t catch that little scene at dinner?”

“I saw her acting like a stinker.”

“I took away her phone.”

“Whoa. You cut off her lifeline.”

“She was texting during grace.”

Wayne frowned. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. I think she can live without her phone for a few days.”

“That’ll be a merry Christmas,” Wayne predicted.

Sure enough, as soon as they were out the door and going down the walk, the fun began as Jordan demanded the return of her phone.

“You can have it back after we’re done with Christmas.”

“What!”

“It won’t hurt you to spend some face time with people.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Well, you know, it wasn’t exactly fair to be texting while Grandpa was saying grace,” Toni said. “In fact, it was downright rude.”

“I was just finishing telling Sarah something.”

“Good. And now you’re finished telling her something until after our family Christmas tomorrow.”

“I hate you,” Jordan grumbled.

Ah, the power children had to hurt their parents with their careless anger. Not for the first time, Toni remembered every mean and snippy word she’d hurled at her own mother when she was a girl. What goes around comes around, she thought sadly.

“Yes, I know,” she said to her daughter. “But I love you.”

And maybe come Christmas morning, when Jordan found the American Eagle handbag she’d been drooling over, along with the clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch, she’d have dialed down the emotion from hate to strong dislike.

Meanwhile, next to Jordan, Jeffrey sat happily playing on his Gameboy.

“How come he gets to have his Gameboy?” Jordan asked petulantly.

“Because he wasn’t playing during grace,” Toni said.

“And I sat on Santa’s lap,” Jeffrey added.

“Of course you would,” Jordan said scornfully. “You’re just a kid.”

Toni decided it would be useless to point out that the two older teens who’d been there hadn’t had a problem posing with Santa in exchange for a goody. Even the grownups had all taken a turn, pulling on his fake beard or poking him in his pillow-stuffed tummy, and several of the women had posed kissing him on the cheek, including Toni.

It really had been a fun evening, enjoyed by everyone except one surly thirteen-year-old. Once Toni had decided to ignore both her daughter and her own irritation, she’d had a good time, too. She hoped she’d be able to enjoy Christmas Day, although she knew her daughter would do her level best to ensure she didn’t.

Sure enough, Jordan woke on the grumpy side of the bed and stayed grumpy all through the morning’s present-opening, as well as Christmas brunch. She was barely polite when they went to visit Wayne’s family that afternoon.

“You know, if you keep up this bad attitude, you won’t be getting your phone back until New Year’s,” Toni warned as they drove home.

“Well, it’s not fair.”

“We’ve already had this conversation. You need to think about how it makes the people who love you feel when you can’t be bothered to look up from your cellular attachment and talk to them or even listen respectfully when they’re saying grace. Maybe next time you want to tell Dad or me something important, we should just ignore you.”

Jordan fell silent, and in the dark car, Toni couldn’t tell if she was seething or actually considering what her mother had said. Probably the former.

Once home, both her children vanished to their rooms, Jeffrey in his normal happy mood, Jordan subdued and serious.

“Do you think anything I said got through to her?” Toni asked Wayne.

“Oh, yeah. It’s submerged somewhere in her brain and should surface in about ten years.”

“Thanks.”